Shelly Banjo, Columnist

Christmas Eve Is the New Black Friday

The best chance is not Black Friday, but right before Christmas.

November 25, 2015 at 4:19 PM UTC

Shelly Banjo leads the global business team for Bloomberg News in New York. A former New York bureau chief and senior tech writer, she’s covered business, finance and economics for two decades.

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In preparation for an extra-festive Thanksgiving this year, I went to Amazon.com on Monday in search of a turkey drumstick headband. I discovered to my horror that, even as an Amazon Prime member, I would have had to pay $45 in extra shipping costs to get a drumstick bopper or decorative pumpkin pie hat by Thursday. Fortunately, a friend found the holiday regalia in stock at a physical store: Ricky's, a New York costume and beauty shop.

The episode underscores the greatest strength of a traditional retailer in the online era: immediacy. If you're on a tight shopping deadline, you can always just walk into a store and get what you want right away.